Last week a coalition, led by Google, wrote a letter to the chairman of the Georgia House Committee on Energy, Utilities, and Telecommunications urging him to not pass HB 282, the Municipal Broadband Investment Act. The bill, if passed, would require that municipal broadband networks serve only areas that are not being served by a private broadband provider. It also requires that the Georgia Public Service Commission (GPSC) make a determination as to whether an area is unserved and to draft rules that specify violations of the Act.

Seeing Google and the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA) is scary enough. These two have nothing on common other than they represent content providers who would rather not directly pay to have their content distributed over the Internet. Both have been pro net neutrality, NATOA more so, because they don’t want to see their content throttled.

Scarier yet is the lack of support for the assertions made in their letter to the committee chairman. Most glaring is their arguments about how the bill would hinder economic growth in Georgia. What’s hindering economic growth in Georgia isn’t the lack of broadband, although the job creation resulting from construction and deployment of broadband infrastructure wouldn’t hurt. What is really hurting growth in Georgia is the lack of a more diversified economic base compounded by a loss of manufacturing jobs. Also, Georgia is trying to get from under a foreclosure crisis exacerbated by high unemployment.

Even if broadband deployment were the panacea for our economic ills, HB 282 would direct deployment where its most needed; in the areas that are unserved and could probably get a boost from the type of industry where a broadband connection is key.

Google and NATOA should spend less time playing carpetbagger and get to know the state before making unwarranted assertions about economic growth. That phrase has been bandied about to the point where it’s staring to lose value.

If Google and NATOA are so concerned about expanding broadband, they should support legislation that calls for an universal service assessment on cost causers like Amazon, Facebook, and Google, requiring that they pay a percentage of income made from advertisements and/or online retail. That would go long way toward getting the unserved online, whether they reside in an area serviced by multiple broadband providers or none.

The United States Court of Appeals-Eleventh Circuit held today that MCI Communications Services, Inc., could not recover loss-of-use damages absent some showing of monetary loss apart from costs of repairs. MCI initially brought a claim that it could recover such damages after having its cable severed during some excavation work being done by CMES. The cut resulted in 568,263 calls being blocked in addition to a number of customer complaints.

Fortunately for the company, the blocked calls did not result in a loss of customers or loss of profits. Also, the company did not issue any customer refunds or credits as a result of the event.

The court of appeals noted in its opinion that there were no cases on point that it could rely on as precedence and also noted that the Georgia Supreme Court had also ruled that as a matter of law in Georgia, there should be a showing of damages if you are going to recover for loss-of-damages.

I think what is also important is what the court of appeals did not say. It did not throw out the loss recovery standard of rental value of substitute cable. This standard was offered by MCI as a basis of recovery.

It looks like the state of Georgia doesn’t need universal funding for telephone service anymore. The Georgia House Committee on Energy, Utilities, and Telecommunications passed HB 855, the Telecommunications Fair Competition and Consumer Protection Act. The Act would reduce the amount of universal service funding received to the equivalent of 110% of the average state-wide weighted rate of a residential line provided by rate of return carrier.

The bill also caps payments received from the fund for the next three years. In 2012, distributions would be capped at $9 million; in 2013 at $6 million; and in 2014 at $3 million. There would be no more distributions after 2014.

Sylvia Russell, president of AT&T Georgia, lays out the case for AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile. In a column posted in The Atlanta Voice, Ms. Russell emphasizes the impact the transaction may have on small town and rural residents in the Peach State.

Georgia in particular can do with as much economic development as possible. Our unemployment rate is 10.2%, according to latest figures from the Georgia Department of Labor. The city of Atlanta itself is suffering from an unemployment rate exceeding 11%. Both rural and urban area are hurting here.

The ability for Georgia’s farmers to compete on a real time basis is imperative, as it faces global competition from other producers. A reliable source for the receipt and delivery of accurate price information is a must.

Atlanta is an entrepreneurial city. More African Americans start businesses here than in in any other city in the U.S. Starting up on your own is the only option for more and more individuals. To be successful, business costs have to be kept low, and technology, especially broadband is one way to accomplish that.

Atlanta is a transportation hub, and Georgia is a large state. Dropped calls or the inability to move large amounts of data without interruption cannot be an additional cost that entrepreneurs and the agricultural industry should have to face.